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8th November 2010 Archive

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  • Linux life savers for paranoid penguins

    Best of Linux When one safety net isn't enough

    So far, in my look at Linux compared to Mac and Windows, I've covered music players, photo organizers, and video editors. But all those apps – and all the documents they create – are lost if your hard drive crashes, your laptop takes a spill, or some other catastrophe strikes. If you have documents, you must have a backup …

    Software 8 Nov 04:00

  • Steve Jobs chucks Apple server biz from pram

    Comment XServe bites the dust. And so much more

    Like any other billionaire — or three-year-old — Steve Jobs does exactly what he wants to do, and stops doing it when he's no longer interested. Last week, Jobs pulled the plug on Xserve machines, and though companies that depend on Apple's servers and related Xsan2 clustered file systems may have been a bit shocked when it …

    Servers 8 Nov 05:00

  • Dell to double enterprise sales by 2014

    More partner deals, more R&D

    Dell is getting tired of just being a box wrapper or manufacturer of other people's enterprise wares. And it is telling Wall Street and its IT customers and rivals that it has a plan to double its enterprise sales to $30bn in the next four years. In a press conference in Hong Kong last Thursday, Steve Schukenbrock, president …

    Servers 8 Nov 06:00

  • Google Chrome OS: unlike Android, it's open source

    The code's already there. If anyone wants it

    Unlike Android, Google Chrome OS is open source. Whereas Android is coded behind closed doors — one big-name developer says it's no more open than Apple's iOS — Google's imminent browser-based operating system is built — in large part — where everyone can see it. A portion of the project remains closed — Google's boot-time- …

    Operating Systems 8 Nov 07:13

  • Garmin Nüvi 3790T satnav

    Review Pocket-friendly satnav

    With the Nüvifone M10 Garmin seemed intent on making a phone like a PND. Now with the 3790T it's going the other way, making a PND that looks and feels like a phone complete with a capacitive glass screen, super-skinny profile and hefty £300 price tag. Garmin's Nûvi 3790T: takes voice commands, but doesn't make calls There …

    reghardware 8 Nov 08:00

  • Caravan-swiping suspect spotted on Street View

    Do you know this bald man?

    Derbyshire Police have issued a Street View snap of a possible caravan thief. Back in June 2009, a Derbyshire family had their caravan nicked from their driveway. Despite forensic examination of the wheel clamps used to secure the caravan, police were unable to finger a suspect. That is until March this year – when the …

    Crime 8 Nov 09:09

  • Laptops heat up your balls

    Expensive spermicide

    Men who put laptops on top of their laps heat up their testicles - even when wearing clothes. This is bad for sperm quality, which in turn could affect fertility. These are the findings of a State University of New York study of 29 men who agreed to have the temperature of their scrotum measured while using a laptop on their …

    reghardware 8 Nov 09:32

  • Symantec under pressure to split up?

    Activist investors getting active

    Symantec faces being split up by activist investors, according to the New York Post. Symantec is viewed as still struggling to integrate its 2005, $10.5bn Veritas acquisition, and it may be undervalued as a result, based upon estimates of what individual units could fetch if they were spun off. For example, Veritas might be …

    Channel Register 8 Nov 09:48

  • Equality Act flaw 'undermines compromise agreements'

    Outside lawyer requirement makes things tougher for employers

    A flaw in the just-enacted Equality Act makes it impossible for an employer and an employee to settle all their differences through a compromise agreement, according to employment lawyers and the Law Society. A compromise agreement is a contract through which an employee or ex-employee can settle an employee's statutory claims …

    Small Biz 8 Nov 10:04

  • Exploit toolkit latches onto IE flaw

    Whorey Eleonore puts it about a bit

    Support for an unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer has been added to a popular cybercrime toolkit. The development means that cybercrooks who use the Eleonore Exploit Kit can take advantage of the unpatched flaw to more easily plant banking Trojans and other crud onto the machines of IE users. Eleonore retails for a …

    Enterprise Security 8 Nov 10:12

  • Toshiba outs and touts mSata SSDs

    Dimm-style drives for MacBook Air etc

    Toshiba has introduced a trio of micro Sata (mSata) solid-state drives of the type Apple has adopted for the new MacBook Air. Available in capacities of 64GB, 128Gb and 256GB, the 10g-weight drives - which, at first glance, look a lot like memory Dimms - "are ideally suited for integration into space-sensitive products, …

    reghardware 8 Nov 10:18

  • USB fanboys teased with 16-port hub

    Handy hardware - or example of tech art?

    Do you have at least 16 USB devices you'd like to connect to your computer at the same time? Look no further: gadget retailer Brando has a USB 2.0 hub with exactly that number of input ports. USB 2.0 being what it is, none of the devices you hook up will communicate at the bus standard's peak speed, 480Mb/s, and you'll almost …

    reghardware 8 Nov 10:38

  • Project managers: fall-guys or heroes?

    Project management Succeed or fail, they're all going to notice you

    Most project managers do a difficult job, but what are they really like? From my experience, a few essential facts about PMs: • PMs do it in the right order, standing in front of complicated charts • PMs take the blame if the project goes bad; it's in their job description • PMs aren't more important than the project, but …

    Project Management 8 Nov 10:40

  • Cisco converts Welsh rugby stadium to HD

    Fans at the venue get big screen action

    Cardiff's Millennium Stadium has been retrofitted with Cisco's StadiumVision networked giant screen and TV system in a £3m project. StadiumVision is an entertainment venue suite of products and services by Cisco that uses IPTV and its ConnectedStadium networking platform to send targeted video streams to TVs and large screens …

    Channel Register 8 Nov 11:00

  • Former student jailed for US political hack attacks

    Zombiemaster used botnet to gag conservative talking heads

    A US student began a 30-month sentence on Friday after he was convicted of using a network of compromised PCs he established to flood the websites of conservative politicians and pundits. Mitchell L Frost, 23, of Bellevue, Ohio, had earlier admitted launching denial of service attacks against the websites of Bill O'Reilly, …

    Crime 8 Nov 11:03

  • Canadian boffins make blood from human skin, put it into mice

    And this time, the mice didn't die! New therapies ahead

    Canadian boffins say they have managed to make human skin turn into blood: and, cleverly, they have avoided the possible pitfall of the new blood tending to cause cancer in mice. It was already known how to make red blood cells from stem cells, but the trouble with this method is that it produces embryonic or fetal blood - …

    Biology 8 Nov 11:11

  • StumbleUpon adds apps to its recommendation list

    Everyone else liked it!

    Discovery engine StumbleUpon will now recommend Android applications too, offering users some help in navigating the quagmire of mediocrity that is the modern app store. StumbleUpon already provides a valuable service to those who know they want to surf the web, but can't decide why, or want to watch a video but can't decide …

    Mobile 8 Nov 11:13

  • How to improve productivity in the workplace

    Webcast An alternative to the 25 hour day

    Struggling with system, workflow or general productivity bottlenecks and break points? El Reg may have just the fillip. We aim to dissect the notion of productivity in this live webcast on November 11 at 11:30am GMT. We look at some of the specifics that should make all of us, and ideally your organisation as a whole, that …

    Tech Panel 8 Nov 11:23

  • EC lobs grenades at copyright's Ancien Régime

    Move over, old men

    The leading digital Eurocrat Neelie Kroes has taken aim at copyright middlemen, implicitly comparing them to the pre-Revolution French monarchy. "All revolutions reveal, in a new and less favourable light, the privileges of the gatekeepers of the 'Ancien Régime'. It is no different in the case of the internet revolution, which …

    Government 8 Nov 11:37

  • Win! An Altec Lansing inMotion im320 portable iPod speaker

    Giveaway Music-on-the-move gadget could be yours

    We have here one of Altec Lansing's inMotion Compact iM320 portable iPhone speaker docks, worth sixty quid, and we're giving it away. The stereo system - reviewed here - packs in a pair of 50mm speakers, a bass enhancement system and space for four AA batteries so you can use it when you're out and about. It'll run off the …

    reghardware 8 Nov 11:49

  • Ballmer cuts stake in Microsoft with shares sale

    'Excited... fully committed' and not going anywhere

    Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer cut his stake in the company by about 12 per cent late last week, after selling $1.3bn worth of shares. It’s the first such stock sale by Big Steve in seven years and was done, according to Microsoft, to “diversify” the firm’s CEO’s investments and help plan for taxes. The stock sale has, perhaps …

    Financial News 8 Nov 12:17

  • NetApp pushes FlexPods at data centres

    Product partnership to hit data centres' sweet spots

    In a we-can-do-it-too move, NetApp is partnering with Cisco and VMware to produce FlexPod for VMware, an integrated server-network-storage offering for data centres moving cloudwards. The FlexPod is a "pre-sized, validated, unified and standardised data centre architecture design available through selected channel partners". …

    Storage 8 Nov 12:20

  • Cameron promises a 'right to data'

    Calls time on Whitehall's secrecy culture

    The Cabinet Office will demand proper transparency from all government departments and move to a "right to data" for the British public. The government, while ensuring national security, "information propriety" and "personal privacy" are protected, will work to release datasets the public wants access to. The Cabinet Office …

    Government 8 Nov 12:27

  • NetApp slips into some fresh arrays

    Mid-range and high-end replaced

    NetApp has replaced its FAS6000 and FAS3100 storage arrays with FAS6200 and FAS3200 arrays featuring faster controllers, more I/O ports, and higher capacities. The FAS6200 line has three members: 6280, 6240 and 6210. The 6210 has 16 X86 processing cores, possibly 2-socket, 8-core Opteron 6100s. It can have up to 1,200 drives, …

    Storage 8 Nov 12:34

  • Police get ready for body parts audit

    Gruesome evidence to be catalogued

    UK police forces are steeling themselves for an audit of body parts. The grim task will enable forces to take stock of the parts collected as evidence over the years and release to relatives those parts no longer needed for legal purposes. The need arises first and foremost because body parts form are also evidence at a crime …

    Policing 8 Nov 12:41

  • Nexus One to get Gingerbread OS?

    Twittermill chews over rumours

    It seems that the venerable Nexus One might be the first phone to get Gingerbread, if tweets from the Open Handset Alliance are to be believed. The tweets come from 'Alliance member Alvaro Fuentes Vasquez, who appears to confirm that Gingerbread will be Android version 2.3 and will be available to developers using Nexus One …

    Mobile 8 Nov 13:00

  • Don't let China hold rare-earths to ransom again

    Opinion There's plenty to go around if we're clever

    We're all screwed over this China rare earths thing, aren't we? After five weeks of withholding shipments, the Chinese seem to have let some of them go again, but if they can keep their precious cargo to ransom once, they can do it again, can't they? The problem is, as those who stayed awake in chemistry class will know, that …

    Government 8 Nov 13:09

  • Security major strops over MS free scanner auto-downloads

    Get off our lawn

    Trend Micro has cried foul over plans by Microsoft to offer its Security Essentials freebie scanner as an automatic download. Plans by Redmond to offer its scanner through its built-in update service could stymie competition, according to the number three security software supplier. Microsoft introduced the auto-update …

    Malware 8 Nov 13:22

  • Apple MacBook Air 13in late 2010

    Review Boots in a flash, but you'll need a lot of cash

    When Apple introduced the MacBook Air in January 2008, one of the biggest price hikes in its build to order options was the choice of a 64GB SSD. Those with slightly shallower pockets for this slimline ultraportable wouldn’t hesitate to opt for the 80GB hard drive version instead. Yet if you’re tempted to take the Air today, you …

    reghardware 8 Nov 13:22

  • GCHQ goes Google

    Net spies turn to MapReduce

    Britain's digital spies have turned to Google for help making sense of the floods of data now inundating their powerful computing resources. GCHQ, the Cheltenham-based signals intelligence agency, is recruiting an expert on MapReduce, the patented number-crunching technique previously behind the dominant web search engine. …

    Government 8 Nov 13:36

  • 3 starts killing off 2G coverage

    Orange schmorange

    3 has started to switch off roaming onto Orange's 2G network in locations where it reckons its own coverage makes the 2G partner redundant. 3 doesn't run a 2G network in the UK, so customers wandering outside the 3G coverage have always roamed into someone else's 2G infrastructure. Initially that was provided by O2, more …

    Mobile 8 Nov 13:41

  • Hadron Collider switches to heavy ions, tinfoilers wet pants again

    Also: Reg hack in large-red-button LHC control room incident

    Particle-punishing boffins at the Large Hadron Collider - the most outrageously powerful matter-rending apparatus and largest machine of any kind assembled by the human race - have switched ammunition. The colossal superconductor massdriver cannons of the LHC are now firing "fully stripped" ultrahypervelocity lead projectiles …

    Physics 8 Nov 13:52

  • Roman 'Leatherman' spied on web

    Multi-tools join sanitation, roads, the fresh water system, public health as stuff the Romans did for us

    And there you were tinking that the Leatherman or Swiss Army Knife in your pocket was a relatively modern invention. Not so - the Romans had multi-tool gadgets too. Case in point: the "compound utensils" held in the collection of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Musuem, snaps of which were recently posted on the institution's website …

    reghardware 8 Nov 14:10

  • Government will shred ID card data

    Hard disks and back-up tapes will be binned too

    The IPS plans to order Thales and 3M SPSL to shred the hard disks and back-up tapes holding the personal information on the National Identity Register (NIR), according to a document released through Parliament's library. The document, CWIC-NIR destruction and equipment decommissioning, says that IPS will order shredding, …

    Government 8 Nov 14:19

  • RockMelt browser slithers onto interwebs

    Spills lava for Facebook socialites only

    A beta of a new "social" web browser named RockMelt, which is based on Google’s open source Chromium code, was splashed onto the interwebulator today. Organs as wide-ranging as The Daily Mail and, er, The Deadbolt, have reported the arrival of what is essentially a test-build of some browser software that plays nice with Web2. …

    Applications 8 Nov 14:22

  • John Lewis pitches 80-quid colour e-book reader

    No mention of the T-word

    If Samsung's 7in Galaxy Tab is too big for you - let alone Apple's 9.7in iPad - then how about this 5in "colour e-book reader" that the middle classes' favourite retailer, John Lewis, will be offering this Christmas? Out under the name of UK electronics supplier Sovos, the SVEBK5-B has a 480 x 800 LCD and measures a neat 149 x …

    reghardware 8 Nov 14:30

  • NetApp adds SSDs and 2.5-inch drives

    But no automated data movement yet

    NetApp is adding solid state drives (SSD) and 2.5-inch disk drives to its FAS arrays to speed data access and increase power efficiency, but is not providing automated data movement - yet. The company has a 4U DS4243 enclosure holding 24 3.5-inch 7,200rpm, 2TB SATA disk drives, or 15,000rpm SAS or 100GB SSD drives, with 300, …

    Storage 8 Nov 14:48

  • Shhh... Opera holds the web's most valuable secret

    Eric Schmidt's nightmare

    Without anybody noticing, Opera has amassed one of the world's most valuable commercial resources. And the funny thing is, it isn't going to do anything evil with it. Marketing, new media and technology pundits may have to rethink a few things once they digest the size of Opera's well-kept secret. It is possible the gurus may …

    Mobile 8 Nov 15:00

  • Small biz doubts red tape claims

    Politicians' promises, and other dreams

    Small business owners are deeply doubtful that the coalition government will follow through on its promises to cut red tape. A survey from the Forum of Private Business found less than one in three of its members believe the government will have any real impact on regulations and bureaucracy faced by smaller firms. Some 40 …

    Small Biz 8 Nov 15:35

  • Australia claims it invented cutting-edge tech before rest of world

    Chopper was the sharpest tool in the box

    Australia has laid claim to being the country that first invented a quite literally game-changing piece of cutting-edge technology - to wit, the stone axe with edge ground for greater sharpness. "This new evidence for the earliest securely dated ground-edge implement in the world indicates that Australia was an important …

    Science 8 Nov 15:37

  • Promise roars into mid-range with Jasper Forest

    A VTrak screamer

    Promise, a tier 2 supplier of RAID arrays, has catapulted itself into the mid-range courtesy of Intel's Jasper Forest processor. Its Ex30 can do 5.5Gbit/s when reading sequential data, meaning inexpensive entry-level arrays can now hold much more data and be used in the mid-range. The VTrak Ex30 has active:active dual …

    Storage 8 Nov 15:54

  • Hacker sinks Royal Navy website

    SQL injection exploited by serial military site 'show-off' hacker

    The Royal Navy's main website has been taken offline following claims by a Romanian hacker that he broke into the site, swiping the login credentials of administrators in the process. The hacker, TinKode, posted information on the web to support his claim to have penetrated the site, www.royalnavy.mod.uk. The Royal Navy …

    Enterprise Security 8 Nov 16:04

  • Harrods blings up Android tablet, quintuples price

    If you need to ask...

    If you've got more than two-and-a-half grand going spare and no taste, posh people's store Harrods has a custom Samsung Galaxy Tab with a back clad in 5700 Swarovski "crystals" that you can buy. Apparently, the thousands of high-lead glass fragments were glued on by hand, and placed around a Galaxy Tab logo done in "Jet …

    reghardware 8 Nov 16:20

  • UK.gov plans net surveillance by 2015

    Snoop schedule

    Government measures to massively increase surveillance of the internet will be in place within five years. In its departmental business plan, published today, the Home Office said it aims that "key proposals [will be] implemented for the storage and acquisition of internet and e-mail records" by June 2015. The plan is the …

    Government 8 Nov 16:24

  • Nokia grabs control of Symbian, downsizes Foundation

    Phut goes the ecosystem

    Nokia is taking over the governance of Symbian, leaving the non-profit Foundation as a vestigial organisation in name only. Around 75 of 100 jobs will be lost, we understand, as the Foundation becomes an entity devoted to licensing IP. In a press release the Foundation's CEO Tim Holbrow, brought in after the sudden departure …

    Mobile 8 Nov 16:46

  • Firefox extension detects FireSheep snoop software

    Unleash the BlackSheep

    Researchers from security firm Zscaler have published free software that detects when users' web connections are being monitored by a controversial tool that steals log-in credentials from Facebook, Google and dozens of other websites. Dubbed BlackSheep, the Firefox extension alerts users when computers on a local area network …

    ID 8 Nov 18:37

  • Facebook serves '23% of all US display ads'

    Lords over Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!...

    Facebook now serves up more display ads than any other outfit on the US web, according to the latest numbers from market-research outfit comScore. In the third quarter, comScore says, the social network topped all other publishers with over 297 billion display-ad impressions, which translates to 23.1 per cent of the market. …

    Business 8 Nov 18:51

  • Bank insiders charged in ZeuS cybercrime smackdown

    Six more ID'd

    Six corrupt bank insiders turned ZeuS money mule suspects have been arrested in Moldova. All half dozen of the suspects worked in local banks in the east European country. Investigators reckon the suspects specialised in laundering Western Union and MoneyGram payments received from co-conspirators in the West that can …

    Crime 8 Nov 19:04

  • iPhone glitch gets US fanbois up on wrong side of bed

    Get your kludgy alarm-bug workaround here

    US-based iPhone users who rely on their handset's alarm clock got a rude awakening on Monday unless they took precautions against a glitch that failed to account for a time change that set clocks back one hour over the weekend. The glitch, introduced in iOS 4, was the biggest assault in recent memory to the it-just-works …

    Mobile 8 Nov 21:14

  • Burglar cuffed after crime scene MySpace blunder

    After thievery, remember to logout

    A Florida teen was arrested for burglary after he left himself logged into his MySpace account at the scene of the crime. According to multiple news accounts, a caretaker for a home on Sugarloaf Key called 911 on Sunday after seeing someone sitting on a couch inside the house. By the time police arrived, the home was …

    Crime 8 Nov 22:24

  • Google punts free in-flight Wi-Fi for holiday travelers

    'Have you noticed my Chrome?'

    Google's Chrome browser team is offering free in-flight Wi-Fi to holiday travelers flying on a trio of US airlines. Thanks to some sponsorship dollars from Mountain View, from November 20 to January 2, Delta, Virgin America, and AirTran will provide free Wi-Fi on all domestic flights via the existing GoGo in-flight service. …

    Wireless 8 Nov 22:37

  • Microsoft floats Hyper-V iron cloud alliance

    Server friends chip in

    Microsoft and six of its server chums have joined forces to inflate so-called private clouds with pre-validated hardware running Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2. On Monday, at its TechEd Europe conference in Berlin, Germany, the company announced the Hyper-V Cloud Program, a set of planned systems and services to float …

    Software 8 Nov 22:48

  • Cray's Q3 biz very unsuper

    Livin' on a Q4 prayer

    Supercomputer maker Cray was supposed to announce its financial results for the third quarter back on October 28, but it pushed the date out to today for reasons that Cray did not explain in its conference call with Wall Street analysts. The company did say that sales in the period fell by 26.9 per cent, to $42.8m. That was a …

    Financial News 8 Nov 23:15

  • Ellison grilled on $4bn SAP 'theft' claim

    Actual math meets mental math

    Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was cross examined on Monday during the ongoing cat fight between Oracle and rival SAP. An SAP attorney grilled Ellison over claims that in pilfering Oracle intellectual property, SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow cost his company up to 30 per cent of PeopleSoft and 15 per cent of Sieble customers. The model …

    Applications 8 Nov 23:20